Readers' Stories - Andie Barker

Andie Barker sent in this poem she wrote in the early days after her daughter Hope was born. It is honest and full of love. It will bring a lump to the throat of even the hardest hearted.

Hope: Pretty in Pink

• I think she has downs I heard them say
  No my head screamed, oh god no way
  They passed her to me, I didn't look
  They put her to breast she started to suck,
  But something was wrong, 
  As a mum I knew
  Her hands feet and body were turning blue,
  
  
  Get the doctor I heard them call
  As the walls of my mind began to fall,
  I couldn't do this they must have it wrong
  Where was my princess I wanted so long,
  The doctors came with a look in their eye
  As they took her away, I was scared she
  would die
  
  
  Then it hit me like boom in my brain
  Pull yourself together you're a new mum again
  Fighting for her life among wires and things,
  Machines making noise ping ping ping
  She has to pull through, she has to stay strong,
  She's my flesh and blood, don't make me wrong
  
  
  Sink or swim my time was here 

  and now,
  Decisions I made would alter everything somehow
  For two whole minutes I had doubted me,
  Now I'm the proudest mum for the world to see
  Nobody wishes for a child with special needs But we get what we get, when we sow the seeds
  
  
  Babies don't chose to be born this way
  It's nobody's fault, believe in what they say
  So things will be different, things will be new
  But your new baby waits for nobody but you
  We named you Hope when we knew you were a gal
  A name you have lived up to it fits you so well
  
  
  You're not the end of the world as they led me to think
  
  
  You're our gorgeous daughter all cute wearing pink .